B00B9FX0F2 EBOK Page 13

  “Look,” he whispered, as if Troy could hear him from across the street.

  Troy had unlocked a station wagon and was climbing into the driver’s seat. Jason waited until the taillights reached the end of the block before starting the Subaru. They did their best to stay at least a block behind him, but between the hour and their distance from the center of town, there were fewer cars on the streets; Jason prayed they weren’t too conspicuous. Jason asked Jenna if she had any idea where they were headed.

  “Could be one of his buddies’ houses, but …”

  “But what?”

  At first Jenna didn’t answer. And then they hung a left, and she finally said, “The cemetery where Lacey is buried is on this road.”

  “Oh.”

  As soon as she said it, Jason knew that was Troy’s destination. Night had fallen, and the energy in the car had suddenly grown tense. In the headlights, Jason began to see headstones dotting the fenced-off grass on either side of the road. The cemetery where Lacey is buried. Jenna had said it so simply, but it wasn’t simple at all. Lacey wasn’t buried.

  “It could be a coincidence,” Jason said, but Jenna didn’t even bother to reply.

  Troy turned sharply into the road leading into the graveyard, but Jason pulled over before the entrance. “I guess I should park here so he doesn’t see us.” He killed the engine but neither of them moved.

  “Do you know where it is? Her grave, I mean.”

  Jenna nodded. “Not far. I haven’t been here since the funeral. It’s too depressing. It’s why I wanted that memorial.” Jenna’s voice was strangely flat and disembodied in the dark. “I know this was the whole reason we’re following him, but I honestly didn’t think he’d do something like this. I kind of don’t want to get out of the car.”

  Jason couldn’t see her face, but he realized she was scared. Out of nowhere there was a loud beep and Jason jumped with fright. He heard Jenna fishing around in her bag. “Just my phone,” she said with a nervous laugh. The glow from the screen illuminated her face and soothed Jason’s jangly nerves.

  “It’s Max — he wants to know how it’s going.” She thought for a minute. “We should wait until we know something before we answer.”

  Their eyes met. “Come on,” Jason said, opening his car door. “It’ll be fine.” He wished he believed it to be true. He took her elbow and guided her up to the entrance to the park. The streetlights from the road dimly lit the path they trudged up, but the farther they got into the cemetery, the deeper the night grew. There was something otherworldly about being in a cemetery at night. Marble monuments shone eerily in the darkness, and the moon cast shadows over the soft grass beneath their feet. In the absence of light, all the flowers Jason could see looked black, as if the petals had been touched by some sinister force and the stems were infected by death. He shivered, hoping Jenna didn’t notice.

  Jason had been yawning all day, his midnight trip to Brighton catching up to him, but now his body pumped with adrenaline. He could hear their individual footsteps and the soft rhythm of their breathing. He was glad they were both wearing dark clothing that wouldn’t stand out if Troy happened to be approaching from the opposite direction.

  Jenna led the way without speaking. There was still no sign of the station wagon, and they stayed a good distance from the road, weaving between the neat rows of stone slabs. Finally Jenna stopped and turned to him. “Up there,” she whispered. “At the top of the hill, just past those trees.” She didn’t move, so he began walking up the hill, his curiosity outweighing his fear. A moment later, she was by his side, pointing to Troy’s car, which was pulled to the side of the narrow road as if it had been abandoned.

  They crept behind the thick trunk of an oak tree, and Jason blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust. They stood as still as statues, barely breathing. Thinking about the skeletons beneath their feet, Jason felt his skin grow clammy. The idea that one of these plots was Lacey’s sickened him. Had he had it wrong all along? Was she underground, lying there lifeless, her ghost responsible for the messages he was receiving? He pushed the thought out of his mind the moment he heard rustlings. It sounded like someone was being strangled, and he wrapped his hand protectively around Jenna’s wrist. With her free hand, she covered her mouth in horror. She had seen something he hadn’t, and he followed her gaze until he could make out Troy’s silhouette as he kneeled on the ground.

  Just then, a cloud that had been covering the moon passed, and a beam of light caused Jenna’s and Jason’s shadows to stretch out along the tidy row of headstones right up to Troy’s back. But Troy didn’t notice, and it was at that moment that Jason realized the choking noise was the sound of Troy weeping. Blood rushed into Jason’s ears, and he caught his breath.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Troy sobbed quietly, repeating the words over and over again. In the moonlight, Jason could see him digging at the earth with his fingernails, occasionally lifting one hand to wipe his face. “I’m so sorry, Lacey.” Jenna gasped, and Troy looked up. “Who’s there?” he called into the shadows.

  They stood frozen in place, so near each other Jason could smell the clean scent of Jenna’s shampoo, and Jason’s heart was pounding so loudly he feared Troy would be able to hear it. To Jason’s great relief, he remained on his knees at the base of the cold gray headstone, though the crying grew softer until finally it subsided entirely. Troy sat a moment longer, and finally got up to go. Jason and Jenna ducked to the other side of the tree as they waited for him to pass. After what felt like an eternity, they heard his car start and watched as his taillights faded down the road. Jason began to approach the plot, but she grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

  “I want to get out of here.” If he hadn’t been standing a few inches from her, he wouldn’t have heard, but the urgency came through loud and clear. He desperately wanted to know what Troy had been doing, but he wasn’t too keen on sticking around the moonlit graveyard much longer, either. So he cautiously led Jenna back along the path to the street.

  Jenna’s hands were shaking as she pulled at the door to the Subaru. Jason helped her inside. “My curfew,” she said when he started the car. It was 9:57. As if they didn’t have enough to be worried about.

  “I can get you home in five minutes,” he said reassuringly. His mind was still with Troy. “Am I making this up or did we just see Troy Palmer sobbing?”

  “Unless we were having the same hallucination, that is what we just saw.”

  “Do you think he was saying sorry because …” The words hung in the air.

  “I don’t know,” Jenna said. Neither said what they each knew the other was thinking.

  “What was he doing to the ground?”

  “He was burying something.”

  “What? How do you know that?”

  “I saw something gold catch the light. Do you think he knew we were there?”

  “I think he would have done something if he knew.” Like kill us, Jason added to himself. “We have to find out what he buried.”

  “Left here,” she interrupted. “There, that’s my house up there.”

  She hopped out of the car. “We’ll talk tomorrow,” she said tightly. He couldn’t tell if her worries stemmed from fear of Troy or anxiety about her curfew. He wanted to tell her it would be okay, but there was no time. Besides, just like earlier, he wasn’t sure whether or not he believed it.

  At first, Jason headed toward Oakdale. Over five thousand songs on his iPod, and not a single one capable of calming him down. His fingers twitched on the steering wheel, and he called Rakesh on speaker phone. It rang through to voice mail.

  “Hey, just wanted to tell you about my night. Pretty ordinary stuff, like, I saw the cocaptain of the Brighton lacrosse team crying in a graveyard. He buried something. In a totally normal way. Okay, call me back.”

  At a red light, he logged in to Facebook. The message from Lacey was only two words.

  Look deeper.

  Jason felt sick when
he read the words. He’d wanted her to finally explain what was going on, but here were more instructions. And they were cryptic — as usual — but Jason still knew exactly what they meant. He had to go back to the graveyard. Alone.

  In the back of his mind, he’d been thinking about his bed waiting for him. As edgy and tense as he was, the idea of his soft inviting mattress, the plush down comforter, the fluffy pillows — his bed was calling to him like a siren. But he’d already turned the car around, was already five minutes from the entrance to the cemetery. How had Lacey known he’d been there? How did she know what he’d missed?

  This time he drove through the open gates and down the half mile of road he and Jenna had followed on foot. A squirrel dashed in front of his car, and Jason slammed on his brakes, stopping just before he hit it. His heart was hammering in his chest, and he half expected to see zombies rising out of the earth. He accelerated again until the oak trees he’d concealed himself in earlier were in sight, and then he cut the engine and switched off the headlights.

  A chilling breeze had kicked up, it had cleared the sky of the cloud cover, allowing the moon to shine bright and cold overhead. It was almost full, illuminating the stray, gray puffs of cloud that lingered. It was the type of night that was made for a witch on a broomstick. Or digging up something that didn’t belong to you at the grave of someone you doubted was dead. Jason might have preferred the witch, not that anyone had given him a choice.

  Jason’s limbs felt like sandbags. The closer he got to the grave, the less he wanted to see it. He kept reminding himself Lacey wasn’t underneath, but it didn’t help. He squinted through his glasses, trying to make out the names carved onto the headstones.

  Beloved Father, Brother, and Husband: James Keegan.

  Martha Nolan, who lives on in our hearts.

  Shane Ryan, friend to all he met, loved by all who knew him.

  He wondered, if he were to die here, tonight, what would his say?

  Jason Moreland, loner.

  He shook the thought from his head. Some of the engravings were too worn down to read. Instinctively, he reached for the flashlight on his key chain, and then remembered that the last time he saw it, it was locked in Lacey’s car. A new wave of fear crashed over him, but it was tinged with something else: hope. Maybe she’d summoned him here to finally reveal herself. Before the idea took him any further, he spotted her gravestone and froze.

  Dark marble rose elegantly from the grass, and Lacey’s name arched boldly across the top, the dates marking her birth and her death below. He swallowed, and his throat felt like it was coated in chalk. It wasn’t the idea of Lacey being dead that upset him — that idea was plenty creepy, but by now he was almost used to it — it was the headstone. It was so … lifeless. At the memorial, you could feel Lacey’s presence; the space was filled with love for her. In contrast, the cemetery felt like a sea of abandonment. People left behind by the ones they’d cared about most, memories buried to rot, bodies deserted by their souls. Jason’s whole self buzzed with fear, and he switched into high gear. The sooner he did what he came to do, the sooner he could get out of this haunted field.

  He dropped to his knees where Troy had left the spongy earth loose and sank his fingers into the dirt, pulling up tufts of grass as he went. The earth had been softened by the spring rains, and the soil came away easily. Jason unsuccessfully tried to block out the fact that the ground he was digging into was literally littered with bodies. His fingers had just brushed something hard and metallic when he was overcome with the sensation that he was not alone. His neck jerked up, and he swiveled his head.

  “Who’s there?” he cried softly, and only when the words were out of his mouth did he realize he was going through the exact same motions Troy had earlier. He released the item he’d discovered in order to turn toward the oak tree he’d hidden behind with Jenna, but no one was there. He scanned the rest of the cemetery, half expecting to see the clown from Hamlet leading Ophelia’s funeral procession. As far as he could tell, he was completely alone. So why did he feel so shaken?

  Returning to the small hole he’d created, he sifted through the dirt until he found the object he’d stumbled on. It was a delicate, thin chain with a flat pendant hanging from it. This must have been the gold Jenna had seen in the light. Jason pushed his glasses up his nose; her vision must be a lot better than his. Dangling the necklace from his fingertips, Jason felt the sides for hinges; maybe it was a locket with a clue inside. Instead, his fingers fumbled over an engraving. He wiped away the remaining dirt, and shifted the face into the moonlight to read what it said.

  LG + TP

  KC

  Just then, a shriek ripped through the night, and Jason leapt to his feet, his eyes widening in terror before he identified the interruption as the sound of his phone’s ringer. He reached into his pocket, but his hands were shaking so much he couldn’t answer until the third ring.

  “Hello?” he whispered.

  “Dude, it’s like you want me to miss all the good stuff.”

  “Rakesh, I can’t talk right now.”

  “Why are you whispering? I know your mom and Mark can’t hear you from their room.”

  “I’m not at my house.”

  “Where are you, then?” Rakesh demanded. There was a pause while Jason cradled the phone on his shoulder and held the necklace up to his face so he could examine it. “Wait, are you at Jenna’s? Bow chicka bow bow!”

  “I’m not at Jenna’s,” he hissed, blushing at Rakesh’s suggestion there was something more than friendship going on between them. “I’m at the cemetery. Troy buried something, and I came back to get it.”

  “You’re digging up something from a graveyard? Have you never seen a horror movie in your life? You have to get out of there. Also, seriously, since when did you become the guy who sneaks around Brighton breaking into cars and stealing things from grave sites?”

  “I’m not stealing anything,” Jason answered, still distracted by the necklace he was holding. “What do you think KC is?” As soon as he said it, he realized the connection.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “KC,” Jason repeated, his voice rising with excitement. “Casey. It’s got to have something to do with the phone calls she was getting.”

  “Jason, I’m worried about you. You’re in a freaking cemetery alone at midnight digging up graves and babbling about someone named Casey. Do I need to come get you? I’m pretty sure I can steal my dad’s car.”

  “Even if you could get halfway out of the driveway before your dad murdered you, what would you do then? You don’t even know how to drive!”

  “So you do want me to come rescue you?”

  “No, I’m fine, I’m about to …” Behind him, Jason heard rustling. The tension that had been slowly easing out of his shoulders as he settled into the familiar conversation with Rakesh returned with a vengeance. He felt like every hair on his body was standing at attention.

  “Look, I gotta go,” he said slowly into the phone, dropping his voice to a whisper.

  “What’s happening? Are you okay?”

  Jason turned around, finding only emptiness. The branches of the oak tree were swaying in the breeze, but he was certain the noise he’d heard had come from much closer. He hadn’t realized how many person-size monuments there were for someone to crouch behind. To his left he saw the pit of a grave that been freshly dug. Somehow he’d missed it earlier, and it sent shivers coursing down his spine to think about a coffin being lowered into it. Rakesh was right; he had to get out of there.

  “Jason? I’m calling the police,” Rakesh was saying.

  “No, don’t,” he protested. “I have to go. I’ll call you back.”

  “Okay, but if I don’t hear from you in ten minutes …” Jason ended the call before Rakesh could finish the threat.

  Jason slipped the necklace into his pocket and started toward the Subaru, but something was stopping him. He turned back toward Lacey’s grave, and this time inste
ad of seeing Ophelia’s funeral, he pictured Lacey’s ghost wandering among the grassy rows. The necklace weighed like lead in his pocket. He didn’t believe in curses or anything like that, but Rakesh’s warning about removing items from the resting place of the dead rang in his ears, and he knew he had to leave it behind. He hastily removed it and dropped it back in the small hole he’d created. Using the tip of his sneaker to fill in the rest of the dirt and the clumps of grass, he looked around him one last time, and, satisfied he was free of evil spirits, walked as quickly as he could back to his car.

  When Jason walked through the front door, he found his mom reclining on the sofa with a book on her lap, her eyes half shut.

  “Hiya, sweet pea.” She yawned. “Where ya been?”

  “The chemistry project,” he reminded her. “Lacey lives out toward Brighton.” Six feet under Brighton, he added silently in his head, if you believe her headstone, which I don’t.

  She looked at her watch. “It’s almost one in the morning. They’re gonna put you in child services if they find out I let you stay out this late to do homework. We should both go to sleep. Mark’s probably up there, snoring away.”

  “Yeah.” He feigned exhaustion even though his heart was still racing. “I’m beat.”

  She rested a hand lightly on his back. “Have you been doing okay lately, kiddo? Some days, I swear, it’s like you’ve got the weight of your world on your shoulders. I don’t mean to pry about Lacey, but you’d tell me if something was going on, right?”